Conventions and Organizations Books

You have to believe this writer. There's an honest, no-axe-to-grind, started-out-neutral-but-changed-his-mind, quality about his account that has the ring of truth. Lots of fascinating sidebars about Southern Baptist history, including the account of a young ministerial student from Mercer College named John Birch.

First pro-conservative book published about the SBC turnaround, & I doubt there'll be a better one.

This book, (along with the others in the series), is the most exhaustive, even-handed, and thoroughly researched account of the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention that I have found anywhere. If you think you know everything about the Conservative movement in the SBC, read this series and see what you missed! Every Southern Baptist and, I believe, every Christian, should read this and the complete series from cover-to-cover. A thoroughly excellent resource and a must have for your personal library.

Dr. Caner has assembled a great resource about the history of the SBC presidents. The book proves to be a valuable addition to any library. You will use it over and over when creating sermons, classes, and to simply develop your knowledge. Great work by a great author!

This book, (along with the others in the series), is the most exhaustive, even-handed, and thoroughly researched account of the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention that I have found anywhere. Every Southern Baptist and, I believe, every Christian, should read this and the complete series from cover-to-cover. A thoroughly excellent resource and a must have for your personal library.

Great book about the spread of Christianity in Japan after the end of WWII. Dub Jackson, former US Air Force pilot and later one of the top missionaries to Japan, gives a first hand account of Japan immediately following the surrender and the years there after. The amazing works of God in Japan that he shares testify to what God can do and serve to encourage and strenghten one's faith.

I first located this book from the library. I ended up checking it out for an additional few weeks. It was so full of useful information, I decided I needed to add it to my arsenal of information for repeated use.

This book is the assigned reading for the Event Planning certification course I'm taking. It's great, very concise and to-the-point. Lots of realistic resources and handy tips.

This has been a really great book and has been a huge help in getting started in event planning. I've planned six events now, and this book is helping me understand some of the processes better and help me better hone my skills. Definitely recommended!

I think this is the best guide for event and meeting planners. there is a lot of source references (especially internet sources available for professional event planners or prospective event planners) It is fun and easy to follow. Everything is clearly explained. There is not too many jargon words used.
I am yet in the middle of the book and I can't wait to see the later parts of it. I am getting all the necessary information I need.

This is a comprehensive introductory book for anyone starting out in the meeting planning industry. The title is a bit misleading (Meeting AND Event Planning) as there is very little information on event planning itself - about 10 pages. The event planning section mostly concentrates on the events that would be part of a meeting (golf tournament, fundraiser, final night gala, etc.) but doesn't go into great detail. There are, however, concepts and information presented about meeting planning (checklists, timelines, vendors etc.) that can be easily transferred to the event planning process.

If meeting planning has recently become part of your job responsibilities, this guide will help you understand the basics. If you are looking for information about becoming an independent meeting planner or event planner (i.e.: getting clients, starting your company) you might need to continue looking for other resources.

Overall the book is well written, has plenty of examples and explains the underlying concepts to organizing a meeting.

I wish I would have read this book in Seminary. This books answered allot of questions I had about Baptist Polity. It brought insight and understanding to why we as Baptist function the way we do and the spiritual significance to decision making and denominational structure. Another great book is "more than just a name, preserving our Baptist identity" by Stanton Norman. A must read!

I NEEDED TWO BAPTIST POLITY I ORDER ONE FROM YOU AND ONE FROM ANOTHER THE ONE I ORDERED FROM YOU CAME RIGHT ON TIME THE OTHER CAME ABOUT A WEEK TOO LATE

Synopsis

James Sullivan has written the definitive textbook on Southern Baptist polity. By calling upon his fifty years of Southern Baptist Convention service, Sullivan formed a comprehensive survey of how and why Baptists do the things that they do. He began by surveying the forces that forged the mettle of Southern Baptist life, faith, and practice in the years before and after the convention's formation in 1845. He examined the foundational element of Baptist life--the local church--especially as it relates to the lordship of Jesus Christ and the priesthood of the believer. He affirmed that the local church is the center of Baptist life for individual members and is the nexus for all other denominational activities. This fierce independence drew deep roots in the early years of the development of Baptists as a denomination. However, the autonomy of the local church allows room for cooperative effort between churches as they seek to do together what they could not effectively do individually. Thus, Baptist churches cooperate through local associations, as well as state and national conventions, to accomplish the work of missions and evangelism.

Sullivan artfully reviewed several myths regarding Baptist polity. He detailed the four building blocks of Baptist polity: tradition, law, sound organizational principles, and theology. He compared and contrasted the Baptist denominational structure vis-à-vis other typical kinds of denominational structures. He concluded, of course, that the Southern Baptist organizational structure is preferred because it is more scriptural and maintains as sacrosanct the autonomy of the local church as it relates to every aspect of denominational life and practice. While Baptist draw their polity and structure from the New Testament church, the system by which Baptists have conducted their business as seen some refinement over they years.

In the last half of the book, Sullivan reviewed the inner workings of the Southern Baptist Convention, its agencies, boards, committees, trustee system, and financing. The reader is given a rare glimpse into the skeleton that supports the body of the Southern Baptist denomination. Sullivan demystified the process for conducting convention business. In doing so, he assured his readers that checks and balances are in place to prevent the convention from usurping local autonomy or moving away from the fundamentals of Baptist beliefs.

Analysis

A few issues are worthy of comment. First, Sullivan served for twenty-two years as the president of the Baptist Sunday School Board. His bias for that agency is clear, especially with regard to the supposed inequities arising from the structure of the Interagency Council. He alleged that these inequities "created an environment which made the present agonies of the Southern Baptist controversy psychologically possible..." (84). However, he does not clarify or warrant his assertion. He seemed to be concerned that the Sunday School Department was not adequately represented with respect to the level of its influence on Southern Baptist life. Such inequity, he charged, created "all kinds of problems from which some of the ministries are still suffering today" (86) But, again, he did not say what problems. He called for balanced representation, but did not define what that balance should look like.

Second, Sullivan noted that several pre-Convention meetings (such as the Pastor's Conference) have arisen over the years. He cautioned that such meetings should not seek to influence the Convention's actions in a negative way (91). While this appears sound on its face, "negative way" is very subjective. One must remember that these pre-Convention meetings are independent, autonomous, and democratic bodies representing a constituency of the Southern Baptist Convention membership. While these special interest groups only relate to the Convention peripherally, the group members will do Convention business directly. Sullivan's angst regarding these meetings most likely stems from their use as a platform from which conservative presidents were groomed for election. Additionally, these conferences highlighted issues of concern for Southern Baptist. Early on during the conservative resurgence, these pre-Convention meetings were used to introduced problems and potential solutions ignored by the Baptist Press and a recalcitrant liberal-moderate bureaucracy. Sullivan had been a part of that bureaucracy for many years.

Sullivan clarified that all denominational entities (associations, state conventions, and the national convention) are organizationally equidistant from the local churches. Additionally, no other denominational entity can influence the work of another. Thus, associations do not select members of state executive boards and state conventions do not select members for national boards and committees. Each selects its own committee members, boards, and trustees. However, Sullivan does not explain how the appointment process happens at the national level. One is left with the impression that selection for service in the national convention is a matter of who one knows, not what one knows. Sullivan lamented that few laypersons serve in high profile national offices, yet the design of the system is such that those in the system select their successors who will in turn perpetuate the system. More transparency is required of the process.

Regarding the theological positioning of Southern Baptists, Sullivan asserted that Baptists are solidly middle conservative with only about ten percent leaning liberal or ultraconservative. His discussion raises several questions he does not answer. One, what is the basis of his 10-80-10 assessment; or is it simply a generalized application of the Pareto Principle? Two, what are Sullivan's definitions of liberal, conservative, and ultraconservative? Third, would other denominations (or other Southern Baptists) agree on that definition? Four, with regard to the theological spectrum (134), is there room for a position that would be neither liberal nor conservative? In other words, why are there only three nomenclatures? Five, is there a matrix of beliefs that can help identify a liberal from a conservative from an ultraconservative? What is the template from which he is working? This reader could not tell. Six, Sullivan stated that "the Convention itself is fairly well locked into a solid position..."(135), but one wonders whether Baptists of the past could discern a theological shift.

Sullivan took subtle jabs at the conservative resurgence. He persisted in asserting that the church was the foundational element of Southern Baptist life--marked by an adherence to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the priesthood of all believers. Those two important doctrines reflected some of the dominant elements of the liberal-moderate position at the height of the conservative resurgence. When conservatives charged that Southern Baptist professors taught from a neo-orthodox view of the Scriptures, the liberal-moderates stood behind their mantra of soul competency and individual priesthood. What they failed to realize is that Baptist polity could never trump Baptist theology.

Read Sullivan in order to understand why the Southern Baptist Convention, agencies, and churches do what they do the way they do it.

If you're interested or have ever lived in the South, and been a Baptist, which most southerners are, then READ THIS BOOK! It's a wonderfully woven tale of truth that pulls you into it. I loved the passages of Sunday in the South. So very true.

This book will appeal to all of those intrested in just where the SBC is going and the problems with division therein.

This is a quick read, and for under $10 it's a good book to share with your committee when you're planning a Future Search. It describes the process, the roles that will be played by various actors in the process, what to expect and what not to expect. To dissuade me of telling the committee that this was an Organizational Development technique, for example, the authors described the differences between O.D. and the Future Search. I would go ahead and buy "Future Search: An Action Guide to Finding Common Ground," by the same authors, to get the complete picture with the details.

I found this book easy to follow and easy to understand. If you want to understand Future Search as a large group strategy, this book will be very helpful. By the time I finished the book, and it is a fast read, I felt that I had a strong understanding of Future Search and when it is to be applied.

In this book, Marvin R. Weisbord and Sandra Janoff describe a three-day program to help organizations develop a future plan. Their conference is designed to unite groups of people from different areas of an organization so they can create a program together that they all support. Typically, the conference includes 50 to 70 people who review the past, explore the present environment, create future scenarios, identify common ground and make action plans. The program encourages dialogue and working together as peers.

Future Search suggests how you might organize this program yourself, from setting up the agenda to planning the logistics. Because the book is a specific, practical guide for a particular type of conference, it will primarily interest those leaders and managers who want to put on such a program. We at getAbstract recommend Future Search as a good hands-on tool for companies, non-profits, government agencies or other organizations that want to hold a future planning conference.

No need to go any further. This the THE book to read if you are involved in planning or facilitating a future search. The authors anticipated all my questions and answered them in a clear, concise manner. The book is an excellent manual for anyone responsible for conducting future searches. Don't leave the present without it.

Weisbord and Janoff provide practical tools, advise and many decades of experience in organizational change and action in their "Future Search." As they say, a Future Search Conference is "simple, not easy" and provides a structured means for leaders to bring in the "whole system" into planning and action.

The natural plenum tank in relationship to environmental pollution is the current answer to our continual existence on earth. Reef Notes, volumes 1 thru 3 by Sprung explain how to set-up and maintain reef tanks by replacing and utilizing nature to augment lifes natural processes. Life, as well as, marine life are dependent on food supply, reproductive capacity, and the elimination of toxic substances. Reef Notes demonstrate how to simulate these life dependent processes via lighting, filtering within the tank and filter to eliminate toxins. Photosynthesis, as we are aware of, utilizes these processes to maintain life. A recent discovery by Environmental Scientist, Dr. Eng, has supported this concept with the discovery of a chemical patented as "Miracle Mud". "Miracle Mud" eliminates the need for protein skimmers, Ultraviolet sterilizers,and ozonizers, by utilizing chemically induced sand and natural algae plants. The knowledge obtained by tropical reef keeping is related to our natural life existence.